Winston: You have created quite a bit of noise in the ad community with the concept of the Strategic Marketing Organization, what you call the SMO. Exactly what is it? How do you define it?
Stanco: Essentially the SMO is a business-oriented protocol dedicated to the proliferation of the client’s business. Usually core business. It’s like having an arms-length marketing department at your beck and call without the overhead and expense. SMOs typically feature mindsets revolving around “what can I do to proliferate the client’s business,” rather than “how can I most profit from my business with the client.” It’s a truly different mindset.
Winston: Don’t most other advertising agencies or PR firms do this sort of thing? Is this really new?
Stanco: Some do, most don’t. Their purpose is obvious, especially those with “advertising” incorporated within their names. What would you expect to receive from a shoemaker? Not garden supplies. Would you go to a butcher to buy a computer? No. So why go to an advertising agency for strategic marketing services when advertising may never figure into a strategic equation?
Winston: Isn’t that a bit narrow in interpretation? To be fair, they get their major messages across.
Stanco: Perhaps. But consider this. If they do provide all these services, their company isn’t aptly named. So why would anyone hire a company that can’t even name themselves advantageously?
Winston: So you are saying that there is something in a name after all. Do clients perceive this in your experience?
Stanco: Not usually. At least not to strategic depth.
Winston: Do you mean that they don’t appreciate the difference between the SMO and the traditional advertising agency?
Stanco: Ask most clients and they will describe their agency in terms that identify them as tactically-oriented, not strategically-oriented. Ask the client if their agency is primarily dedicated to nurturing or expanding the client’s business and see what type of answers you get.
Winston: Once again, is this really a new vehicle or an old Chevy with a new coat of paint?
Stanco: I think in the olden days of advertising, many agencies, especially the big ones, had strategic thought processes. However, that’s long gone. With clients applying a premium on agency creativity, and the agency’s focus on business development, the clients’ well being becomes obfuscated. The SMO represents a rededication to real world marketing.
Winston: Wait. Are you implying that creativity should be secondary?
Stanco: Not at all. I’m just saying to put creativity in its place. Achieving the clients’ business goals is the primary raison d’etre for an SMO. Creativity should always be a means to that end, not an end in itself.
Winston: Then what about creativity as a positioning device?
Stanco: If creativity is what will sell the goods or services, or establish them so as to be sold more readily in the future, then it makes a great deal of sense.
Winston: Very supply side thinking for an agency.
Stanco: True. But the true value of an initiiative or program as opposed to the glitter, comes from Positioning, Messaging and Branding.
Winston: And you call that the Branding Continuum?
Stanco: I call it a lot things depending on whether it is working the way I expect it to work or not.
Winston: That said, define for me what differentiates an SMO from the traditional agency.
Stanco: It’s relatively simple. Only a true SMO is completely dedicated to the proliferation of a client’s business, including providing the research, the strategic process, the tactical plan, the creative and implementing all of the above. That’s the SMO’s raison d’etre.
Winston: Says you in “Utilizing the Strategic Marketing Organization.”
Stanco: Says me.
Winston: Where are the limitations of the SMO? Does size of client, market, budget affect its application?
Stanco: In theory, no. The SMO concept lends itself more readily to certain B2B activities rather than broad scale mass market consumer activities. The principles of strategic marketing can apply to practically any business sector, service or product.
Winston: What makes the SMO concept beneficial in today’s world? Why isn’t it just another re-scripted marketing or ad agency balloon full of hot air?
Stanco: Because the approach works. Because it identifies selling positions, articulates messages and produces results. Because it is matched to business and marketing plans. Because it gives you the ability to measure results. Because it controls costs. Need I go on?
Winston: That’s enough thank you. Why is this more important today than before?
Stanco: I don’t know that it is more important today than before. It’s just that people are finally acknowledging the priority of actually doing business rather than winning awards for promotional excellence. As business slows, the concept of the SMO glows. Why? It’s just good business. Again, awards are fine. We win our share at PMG. But what really matters is attaining the client’s goals, sales and otherwise, and marketing objectives.
Winston: And how does an SMO do that?
Stanco: With great dedication and planning. The client’s goals have to be grounded in reality and executed with messaging that the target audience can understand and appreciate. ago, Nissan received accolades for a TV ad campaign of the year, but sales foundered and as a result the man at the top was asked to leave. That’s not SMO thinking.
Winston: Couldn’t that have been due to the economy?
Stanco: Could have been, but it wasn’t. The economy was particularly vibrant. The consumer never connected with the benefits of the messaging, never understood that the messaging was to buy Nissan. They never asked for the business.
Winston: You obviously believe in the SMO concept. What do you feel are the key assets of the SMO strategy?
Stanco: Key assets? There are so many. For example, if I have to have some organization working for PMG, I certainly would want them to be thinking strategically about my business. I would want them to be doing their respective jobs, but doing them within the context of how will this benefit PMG. Thinking about the future…not just the present. It doesn’t matter if they are software people or telephone installers, I would rather have them keeping our business needs in mind rather than just wiring something system or dumping software.
Winston: I’m not sure you answered my question. What do you feel are the key assets or cardinal points of the SMO strategy?
Stanco: There are many, but since the concept has supply side relevancy, the key, in my opinion, is that it is and always will be, a client oriented-resource. Think about that. It’s designed to identify and achieve the client’s primary goal or goals. Not the agency’s. Not someone else’s goals. Not to win competitions. But to achieve the client’s goals. That has to be the primary key.
Winston: What are some other key benefits. And why are they important?
Stanco: Being able to receive marketshare through mindshare at all times. And that’s whether it is from a website, blog, brochure, presentation, a sales program, trade show or a complete marketing program.
Winston: If there are key assets, there also have to be key shortcomings. No concept is perfect. What are the key shortcomings of the SMO strategy?
Stanco: Virtually none that affect the client. Plenty though for the SMO itself! Because you, as an SMO, dedicate yourself to the proliferation of your client’s business, you all too often leave your own business vulnerable. Unlike most other companies your own self-promotion comes secondary or tertiary. (Laughs). I agreed to this article what, two years ago? But here we are doing this now. A perfect example. SMOs generally do not sufficiently promote themselves; rather you are using your time promoting your client. So that leaves you vulnerable in a business sense.
Winston: I’ll say. How does an SMO achieve a secure position? How do you do this with Progressive Marketing Group for example?
Stanco: You have to have a great and open relationship with your clients. The more they trust you, the better you can help them. And like it says in Chapter 14, a written contract helps a lot!
Winston: Should some client-side internal sales and marketing departments be wary of SMO organizations? They could feel that the SMO will minimize their influence. Any truth in that?
Stanco: I don’t know that it is true. I have never seen it happen. Historically, in the case of PMG, at least, I can say that we work well with internal departments whether they are sales, marketing, creative, HR, communications, etc. In fact, we partner a great deal of the time FOR internal departments.
Winston: But doesn’t the SMO tend to take business or responsibilities away from them?
Stanco: I don’t think so. They are our clients. We work to proliferate their businesses by helping them to attain their goals. The credit goes to that collaboration. At PMG at least, we often work under the auspices of such departments. We provide an expansion or magnification of their services as well as other services they can’t offer. And we’re sufficiently trustworthy to be privy to their plans, even beyond NDAs.
Winston: So who gets the credit and the glory for a job well done? The internal departments, or the SMO?
Stanco: From a glory standpoint, these departments receive the recognition and the applause because they achieved goals. They collaborated and hit a home run. Being dedicated enough to hire the SMO as a strategist and/or as an implementor in the first place is deserving of accolades. And we, meaning PMG, sublimate our egos to accept this.
Winston: Then why do these various departments hesitate to put trust into a typical SMO type partnership? According to you, it seems like a natural fit.
Stanco: Again, I don’t know that they do hesitate very much. More so years back. Assuming that, I would suppose it’s a matter of trust. You have to trust that your partner will do the right thing in any relationship, business or otherwise, don’t you? Who do you want in the foxhole with you? Or are you trying to face the enemy by yourself? At PMG we’re privy to many details and quasi-secrets that need to remain secrets. And they do.
Winston: Another possibility may be because the Strategic Marketing Organization develops so much expertise in the client’s field. Isn’t that a threat?
Stanco: Possibly, but once again, we are reporting to these departments either directly or indirectly. Knowing about or educating ourselves about the industry vertical only makes us do a better job for the client. So mutual trust is very very important.
Winston: You’ve been called a guru, an expert in strategic marketing. What makes you so good?
Stanco: (Laughing.) I have been called worse.
Winston: Seriously. What makes you so good?
Stanco: Thanks for the compliment. Hang around for 35 years and suddenly you’re a sage. Hard work, what else? Experience. Dedication. There’s just no substitute for having successfully negotiated your way through a mine field or two.
Winston: And what about strategic vision and the SMO? How does any firm, let alone an SMO like PMG, react to these parameters?
Stanco: What parameters? All to often the word “parameters” is a non-strategic term because it applies to walls or confines.
Winston: Whoa. Maybe we had better stipulate the difference between strategic and tactical.
Stanco: That’s simple. In a nutshell, strategic is a long term, business-building stratagem. The strategy leads to the tactic. Tactical refers to the real-time, in-the-trenches marketing like the applications we prepare vehicles for…web initiatives, SEM/SEO, media programs, PR, collateral, etc. Strategic is necessarily progressive in nature while tactical may be but often is not.
Winston: Let me guess. So that’s why you’re named Progressive Marketing Group?
Stanco: You have to start somewhere. I’m a big Theodore Roosevelt fan and I always like to tell people that PMG was named after Teddy’s 1912 election campaign where he ran on the Progressive or Bull Moose ticket.
Winston: Some people hold that SMOs are more effective for privately owned firms. Is that true?
Stanco: Certainly SMOs have the potential to function best in environments characterized by strong individuals who have the vision to appreciate the possible while tempering that vision with the practical. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that there is a higher percentage of such individuals in privately owned businesses. They’re just more obvious in that state.
Winston: I loved the part in Chapter 9 of “Utilizing the Strategic Marketing Organization,” where you gave six or seven reasons why you wouldn’t need an SMO. Care to paraphrase them?
Stanco: You don’t need an SMO if you don’t need new business. Or you don’t want to expand, or don’t need new customers. You don’t need an SMO if you’re satisfied with your profitability or you can’t supply the demand for your offerings. Or if you’re going to be tried under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
Winston: In an ideal world, would the SMO work best for a larger company or a smaller one?
Stanco: It’s not the size of the organization, but rather the scope of the company’s vision. The clearer the vision, the more need for the SMO’s services and guidance. At Progressive Marketing Group, we work with large firms and small firms. Blue chips and start ups too. And before you ask, yes we do supply “vision” to those companies who need it.
Winston: What about budgets? How does the SMO work within a given budget?
Stanco: Carefully. You said it perfectly. Work WITHIN a given budget. Always.
Winston: Can an SMO handle tactical projects without being on a retainer for “the whole account?”
Stanco: Yes, easily. The SMO is a resource. And that scenario happens frequently.
Winston: How can an SMO possibly succeed as a generalist within such a vast arena of service areas likePR, web, multimedia, etc?
Stanco: The process of strategic marketing is not subject-dependent. For example, at PMG, we apply strategic marketing to everything we do. So we’re generalists in a very specialized way, no matter what the tactic is.
Winston: How does a client save money with an SMO on-board? Seems like there would be a premium to pay for the expertise and capability you describe.
Stanco: Versus what? The SMO is always working within an established budget. And, strategically speaking, the SMO asks for dollars to be allocated. If there’s a premium to be charged on top of that, then that’s up to the individual SMO, though it should be inherent in a rate structure.
Winston: So when is the next book coming out?
Stanco: As soon as you sign up to be the editor.